Personnel changes at VW design

There are to be leadership changes at Volkswagen Design: Klaus Bischoff, chief designer at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand, will take over as head of group design effective 1 April 2020, initially serving in both capacities. Jozef Kabaň will lead design at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand from 1 July 2020. Michael Mauer, who currently heads both Group Design and Design at Porsche, will concentrate on his responsibilities at Porsche once the changes have come into effect.

Kabaň holds a Master of Arts degree and began his career in exterior design at Volkswagen in 1993, where he became a team leader, while simultaneously heading exterior design at Bugatti from 1998. He moved to Audi in 2003, where he oversaw exterior design in Ingolstadt from 2006. Kabaň held responsibility for design at the ŠKODA brand from 2008 to 2017. He became head of design at BMW in 2017 and was appointed head of design at Rolls Royce in 2019.

Bischoff holds a degree in design and has been with Volkswagen since 1989. He began his career in interior design in Wolfsburg. He was named head of design concepts in 1996. Following further senior management roles as head of interior passenger cars, head of exterior design and head of complete vehicle design, Bischoff was placed in charge of the Design Center in Wolfsburg in 2006. He was appointed chief designer at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in 2007.

Mauer studied automobile design and began his career with Mercedes- Benz in 1986, where he held various senior management posts in design until 2000. In that year, he moved to Saab as executive director design and also headed advanced design at General Motors Europe from 2003. Mauer has been head of design at Porsche AG since 2004 and has additionally been responsible for group design since 2016.

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